


Laughter and Light

by sophinisba



Category: Lord of the Rings (Movies), Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Canon Compliant, Captivity, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-11-17
Updated: 2006-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-01 17:26:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/359404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophinisba/pseuds/sophinisba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three moments of recovery</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laughter and Light

**Author's Note:**

> Based on requests by Claudia603 and Gentlehobbit. Each sentence is 25 words long.

Merry looked on as Aragorn held up the mithril shirt, looked sharply away from Frodo's deep dark bruises and the scores of the tiny rings.  
  
They did their best to make light of things, their voices ringing softly through the dell along with the tinkling metal and the laughing water.  
  
And Frodo, his heart a tight and heavy knot of grief inside his aching ribs, knew he could not and must not laugh with them.  
  
One more secret out, he thought, quietly sliding the Ring on it's chain behind his back, as Aragorn bathed his wounds in the fragrant water.  
  


* * *

  
They'd taken his clothes, all of them, and Frodo curled in on himself around some of his wounds, though he couldn't protect all of them.  
  
The Orcs were ignoring him, for now, trading insults and harsh laughter as they held up his things, the brilliant ones along with the filthy.  
  
And Frodo, who didn't know what he could safely say, how much they knew and how much they'd taken, kept silent, pretended to be asleep.  
  
He spoke not a word to their questions, only found his voice again when he heard an old familiar song in a dear friend's voice.   
  


* * *

  
He can hear familiar voices before he comes awake completely, and he knows they are laughing out of true joy this time, no longer pretending.  
  
Merry says Pippin's awake and talking to him already, so what makes Frodo and Sam think it's all right to lie abed all day, unsociable?  
  
And Frodo, rather than open his eyes or his mouth, is content to listen to the gentle teasing, to feel the gentle hands tending him.  
  
"The quest is achieved," says Aragorn, and his words bring as much comfort and peace as the scent of athelas and the touch of sunlight.


End file.
